SCIENCE STATS
Drug resistance is a prolific killer
Bacterial infections that don’t respond to treatment are a
major cause of death around the world.
In 2019, antimicrobial resistance caused an estimated
1.27 million deaths, researchers report January 19 in the
Lancet. Globally, that translates to a rate of 16.4 deaths
per 100,000 people. More than twice as many people died
from untreatable bacterial infections that year than from
malaria, the fifth leading cause of death worldwide.
The estimate is based on an analysis of hospital, sur-
veillance and other sources of data from 204 countries
and territories by an international group of research-
ers called the Antimicrobial R esistance C ollaborators.
Resistance to two classes of antibiotics, beta-lactams
(which include penicillins) and f luoroquinolones, was
behind more than 70 percent of resistance-caused deaths.
Those drugs are the first-line option for many bacterial
infections.
Among the bacteria
responsible were pathogens
that commonly strike in
health care settings, such as
E. coli and Staphylococcus
aureus (SN: 10/29/16, p. 4).
FROM TOP: E. CLARE; KELVIN WILSON— Aimee Cunningham
1.
million
The estimated number of deaths
caused by antibiotic-resistant
infections in 2019Dingoes inspect the thin tube of a vacuum that
ecologist Elizabeth Clare uses to trap eDNA.used to track aquatic critters such as
salmon and sharks. Scientists knew
they could use environmental DNA,
or eDNA, in the air to monitor land-
based species — if only they could trap
it. Now, researchers have done just that
by using vacuums, two groups report in
the Feb. 7 Current Biology.
At the zoo, Clare and colleagues ran
the vacuum for half-hour sessions in
and around animal enclosures, collect-
ing 72 samples from 20 sites. Once back
at the lab, the team analyzed material
caught in the vacuum’s filter.
Meanwhile, a team at the University
of Copenhagen was chasing the same
idea. Biologist Kristine Bohmann and
colleagues sought to trap airborne
eDNA at the Copenhagen Zoo using a
vacuum, as well as small fans similar to
the ones that cool computers.
Both teams used a zoo for its roster of
animals because they were still testing
the technique. Air in the wild could host
eDNA from unpredictable places, but atzoos, the teams could cross-reference
the captured eDNA with animals listed
in exhibits. That allowed the scientists
to confirm sources of the eDNA and see
how far it traveled between enclosures.
Bohmann’s team identified 49 species
in the Copenhagen Zoo, including ani-
mals living in the sampled enclosures,
such as okapis (Okapia johnstoni) and
a Dumeril’s ground boa (A crantophis
dumerili). The team also picked up onmammals and birds from surrounding
exhibits, as well as fish used as food.
At the Hamerton Zoo, Clare’s team
identified 25 species, including tar-
geted zoo residents and unexpected
ones. In the dingo enclosure, the team
detected DNA from meerkats (Suricata
suricatta) that live 245 meters away.
Zoo outsiders also turned up in each
team’s results. Clare’s team detected
the European hedgehog (Erinaceus
europaeus) while Bohmann’s group
picked up mice and domesticated dogs.
Both teams caught whiffs of human
DNA too.
Sucking eDNA from the air could
be a noninvasive way to identify
where endangered species have been,
B ohmann says. But this technology has
yet to be tested in the wild.
Just as aquatic eDNA has progressed
over the last decade, so too will airborne
eDNA, Clare says. “I’m really looking
forward to seeing other people go out
and use the technique.” — Jude ColemanTHE –EST
Oldest known straws siphoned beer
Eight silver and gold tubes held in a Russian museum are
the oldest surviving drinking straws, researchers say. People
used the straws to drink beer from a communal vessel more
than 5,000 years ago, conclude archaeologist Viktor Trifonov
of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg and
colleagues. Excavations in Russia uncovered the tubes in a
burial mound containing three individuals from the Maikop
culture, which dates to between about 5,700 and 4,900 years
ago (SN: 6/7/30, p. 367). Residue from the inside of one tube
contains remnants of barley, cereal and pollen from a lime
tree — potential ingredients of a flavored beer — the team
reports in the February Antiquity. Further work needs to
confirm that the barley had been fermented. — Bruce BowerGold and silver
tubes that are
more than
5,000 years old
were probably
used to drink
f lavored beer
from a com-
munal vessel,
as shown in
this illustration,
scientists say.http://www.sciencenews.org | February 26, 2022 5